Tuesday, September 6, 2016

The Arizona political scene was jolted out of the beginning
of its Labor Day weekend on Friday night when the CD 5 race between Andy Biggs
and Christine Jones suddenly became too close to call. It went from a Jones-37
vote margin to a Jones-6 vote margin to a Biggs-9 vote margin in the wee hours
of Saturday morning.

Biggs won the race when all the ballots were counted (by 9
votes), but the proceedings are by no means over. There will be an automatic
recount when the results have been canvassed, and lawsuits sure to follow.
Christine Jones spent almost two million dollars to buy this seat on Election
Day, and she will not be leaving any money on the table in her attempts to win
this seat in court.

Though the Arizona Secretary of State’s office doesn’t have
as much of a role to play in this election as the Maricopa County Recorder’s
Office, it still has a small part. It is here – at the Secretary of State’s
office – where Jones might have a leg up on Andy Biggs. Jones and Secretary
Michelle Reagan appear to be close friends and share a strong sense of mutual
respect and admiration towards one another (see social media posts below).

Also, Reagan just hired a new employee – Garrett Archer –
who has singlehandedly given the Jones’ camp one of it’s arguments to contest
the election in court. Archer, a data and analytics guru, could not hide his
dismay and disbelief of the quickly-closing vote total between Jones and Biggs
throughout Friday night. One other AZSOS employee was also considered as a
possible Jones’ campaign staffer just before the former GoDaddy executive
jumped into the race this past spring.

Michelle Reagan has had a rough two years as the Arizona
Secretary of State. She cannot afford another topsy-turvy election on her hands
– much less claims of using her official office to benefit a friend in one of
the closest elections in Arizona history. Michelle Reagan must go above and
beyond to show the Arizona public that she will remain neutral and impartial
towards both sides in this ongoing saga. Failure to do so would be catastrophic
to her future political career and to the integrity of the election process.